1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a guide jig for use with an assembly plate for assembling a wire harness which is a bundle of wires arranged in a desired form into a unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 9, an assembly plate comprising a plate member B and guide jigs A, arranged on the plate member B at predetermined positions, is used to assemble a wire harness. Wires a cut to a predetermined length are laid along the guide jigs A to form a bundle of wires having branches in a shape suitable for the desired purpose. Tapes t are wound around the bundle to prevent the wires from loosening. Finally, clamps and protectors (hereinafter referred to as accessory parts) are put on the bundle to form a wire harness.
Modern harnesses have a more complicated branch structure. Thus a greater number of guide jigs A have to be mounted in a smaller area. Such densely mounted guide jigs A will hamper taping and mounting of the clamps and protectors, thus remarkably lowering workability.
As a solution to this problem, the present applicant proposed a guide jig A for a wire harness assembly plate in Examined Japanese Utility Model Publication 62-20103. Namely, as shown in FIG. 10, this prior art jig is vertically movable with respect to the plate member to bring it to a lower position so as not to interfere the taping and clamping.
The prior art guide jig A includes a support sheath 2 extending through and secured to the plate B, a guide lever 5 vertically slidably inserted into the support sheath 2, a support plate 4 fixedly mounted on the support sheath 2 and provided with a lock mechanism 8 adapted to engage a pin 7 provided at bottom of the guide lever 5 to hold the guide lever in its pulled-up position.
In order to ensure that the pin 7 engages the lock mechanism 8 when the guide lever 5 is pulled up, a guide means is provided to guide the guide lever vertically and unrotatably with respect to the support sheath 2. The guide means comprises a slit 6 formed in the support plate 4 to extend vertically and adapted to receive the pin 7 on the guide lever 5.
This prior art guide jig A has to have a support plate 4 having a length equal to the length of movement of the pin 7. Thus the support plate 4 protrudes considerably downwards form the plate member 1. This increases the possibility of the frame 4 being deformed or broken during transportation. Thus, it was necessary to transport the assembly plate with the guide jigs removed and assemble the plate with the guide jigs when forming a wire harness.
An object of this invention is to provide a guide jig which obviates the shortcomings of the prior art guide jig by reducing the amount of protrusion from the bottom surface of the plate member.